“Infected by Old School” is split
of four Polish metal bands... four very different bands, each with different style
and sound, but with one shit in common: they all love old school, even if this
old school may mean something different to each of them. How does it sound to
you? Well, I can understand that usually it’s better to have a split release
where bands have similar style, but maybe this time it’s gonna be something
more interesting? We’ll see.

So, Cemetery Whore goes first.
Damn, I like this band a lot and can only be sorry to find just three songs
from them (where one is a Celtic Frost cover), all of which have been released
as “Into the Cunt of Cemetery Whore” demo. They’re probably the rawest sounding
and obscure death metal act from the whole four, with that really nasty and
morbid music that caught my attention immediately. It stinks with the odour of
very early Asphyx, ancient Death, Autopsy or Nihilist, so bands which I just
adore. I like the raw sound of this demo, some cool riffs, good vocals, with such
“The Walking Dead of Nazareth” being absolutely bashing track. It’s just makes
me want to hear more.

Next up is Nuclear Holocaust. I
already have their “Mutant Inferno” and listened to it several times and on
this split they included this demo in its entirety. Do I like it? Well,
honestly it’s nothing exceptional for me. They have this punkish, crusty grind
style, with rather screaming than growled vocals and with very raw and
aggressive manner that some of you may like, some don’t. It’s nothing truly
incredible or memorable, especially since all songs tend to sound the same to
me. Short songs (11 tracks in 15 minutes), very simple, straight forward
playing… it’s often compared to Terrorizer, but I would not go that far with
comparisons, to be honest.

Second to last is one of my
favourites and surely the best band from the whole split – Hell fuckin United. Who
doesn’t have their last album “Aura Damage” is gay. Anyways, what they show
here are sadly just two songs of total death metal annihilation. It’s vicious,
fast, aggressive and obscure, it’s dark and evil sounding... it’s just a killer
stuff. I really like their riffs and this ghastly feeling their music
has. I like that it’s so straight forward, chaotic, with no bullshit and the
intensity and sheer aggression of their music reminds me such Angel Corpse or
even bands like Revenge. And these two songs are supposed to be taken from
rehearsal recording, but damn, they sound awesome in my opinion!

Finally we have
Necrosodomistical Slaughter, who present twenty songs of a total grind madness!
Surely it’s unfair; the best band Hell United has two songs and they have
twenty haha, who cares if some of them are just few seconds short haha. I honestly
am not a big fan of such music, I don’t listen to grind often. In the beginning
it’s still OK, tracks like “Saw Blast Massacre” or “Let's Kill Again” are
really cool, but after few songs I get bored and tired with it, especially as
some of these tracks has absolutely no sense. Hmm, I guess you cannot even call
them songs, as they’re what? Short noisy eruptions or other farts haha? It’s
hard to treat bands like them seriously, it’s also hard to really listen to it,
so if I can be honest, I usually skip most of their songs, because they don’t
interest me. But the longer songs (1,5-2 minutes long), like those I mentioned
above, are pretty cool.

So, “Infected by Old School” is
weird split. Two great bands and two, which I don’t like so much. For Cemetery
Whore and Hell United I would give at least 80/100, for the other two 60/100...
So, the final verdict is…